Screening recommendations for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria comprise microbiological analyses from rectal swabs. However, essential specifications of the preanalytic steps of such screenings, i.e. the sampling technique, sampling devices and sampling site, are lacking. For standardized and optimum screening conditions these parameters are indispensable. Here, the optimum parameters...

INTRODUCTION The validation process is essential in accredited clinical laboratories. Aim of this study was to validate five kinds of serum vacuum tubes for routine clinical chemistry laboratory testing. MATERIALS AND METHODS Blood specimens from 100 volunteers in five different serum vacuum tubes (Tube I: VACUETTE, Tube II: LABOR IMPORT, Tube III: S-Monovette, Tube IV: SST and Tube V: SST II...

OBJECTIVE We investigated how beta-cell function and insulin sensitivity or resistance are affected by the type of blood sample collected or choice of insulin assay and homeostatis model assessment (HOMA) calculator (http://www.dtu.ox.ac.uk). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Insulin was measured using 11 different assays in serum and 1 assay in heparinized plasma. Fasting subjects with normoglycem...

Aberrant false-positive reactions in negative-controls during ELISA testing for Clostridium difficile indicated the potential for false-diagnoses. Experiments with 96-well products showed a maximum peak of false-positive immunoassay reactions with the provided negative-control reagents after 5 refrigeration-to-room temperature cycles (P < 0.001), decreasing thereafter with additional refrigerat...

Protein profiling using SELDI-TOF-MS has gained over the past few years an increasing interest in the field of biomarker discovery. The technology presents great potential if some parameters, such as sample handling, SELDI settings, and data analysis, are strictly controlled. Practical considerations to set up a robust and sensitive strategy for biomarker discovery are presented. This paper als...

for measuring LD in heparin plasma is necessary. We have shown that in contrast to the nonevacuated heparin tubes from Sarstedt (5 ), the evacuated lithium-heparin tubes from Becton Dickinson cause a high frequency of duplicate errors in the IFCC method for LD. Increased attention to the preanalytical steps (additional mixing before centrifuging) and adapting the analytical procedure by introdu...

The detection and monitoring of preanalytical bias in the clinical laboratory can be challenging, as bias can be introduced at any point from specimen collection to sample processing, and those biases stemming from sample collection or handling before delivery to the laboratory can be difficult to measure and eliminate. In particular, variations in potassium concentrations due to preanalytical ...